Publish America scam - Writers Forum

Marie · 02-13-2006, 12:52 PM

Here are some articles online about this publisher. They are sucking in a lot of authors. Books are not edited, nor placed in bookstores.

The Frederick News Post Article: PA’s Hometown Newspaper: http://www.lisamaliga.com/fredericknewspost.htm

Making Books / The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25187-2005Jan20

Rip Off Report, Publish America House of Publishing Rip Off: http://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/ripoff104646.htm

Preditors & Editors: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pebp.htm - 26k

WNBC / Publishing On Demand Can Cause Problems: http://www.wnbc.com/askasa/4124957/detail.html

The Only Thing You Need to Know About Publish America: http://www.steelypips.org/miscellany/publishamerica.html

The Neverending Publish America Thread: http://p197.ezboard.com/fabsolutewritefrm11.showMessage?topicID=209.topic

A Writer’s Life: http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2004/12/more_on_publish.html

The Truth About Publish America FAQ: http://www.freewebs.com/truthaboutpa/faqs.htm

Useless Knowledge Mag: Article by PA author Argile Sox / http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/may/article346.html
Try to ignore the ads. The article is what is worth going here for.

On Publish America: http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/writing/pa.html

For Publish America, read Scam America: http://www.sensiblesoftware.com/articles/a/For-PublishAmerica-read-ScamAmerica.html

htack210 · 02-13-2006, 01:27 PM

I made the mistake of getting my first novel published by Publish America.

Being naive, I bought into their hype about PA being a traditional publisher. Despite their claims to the contrary, they are just an author mill. They don't edit your work beyond getting it formatted for printing, they charge too much for their books, and they do nothing to help you market your work (although they might lead you to believe otherwise).

Granted, there are those rare few who hit paydirt, but they are few and far between.

I dunno...did I make my point?

Dephere · 02-13-2006, 01:54 PM

edit: Guess it got moved. hehe.

Mike C · 02-13-2006, 04:01 PM

If anyone's in any doubt, read this http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26537 and this - http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524

Warning - it may take a very long time.

robbiejayfan · 03-15-2006, 01:51 AM

Hi;

I know it's been a while since this thread has been active, but since I'm fairly new to the forum, and I just stumbled across it, I'm hoping to bring it back to life.

I know there are a lot predatory self-publishers out there. But up to this point, I always thought PA was pretty reliable. A frined of mine in Oregon, Sean Ellis, had his first novel, MAGIC MIRROR published through them.

He never complained even though they put little effor into marketing the book. He was under the impression when he signed on that it was his responsibility to market the book. I believe it actually states that in their contract.

The reason PA claims they don't spend money on marketing is that they don't charge to have your book published.

I guess I don't understand how PA can be considered predatory. They don't ask for any money, and as a trade off you are responsible for doing your own marketing.

There are a lot of other companies who ask for your arm and leg just to get your work published, and on top of that they don't do any marketing.

I don't have any reason to defend PA. It's just that I don't see them as being all that bad. I could be wrong. Just my thoughts.

journyman161 · 03-15-2006, 02:05 AM

Strange because I thought that traditional publishers actually paid the author to publish the work... that the idea was to get you into print if your work was worth it & then promote it so the publisher & author both make money.

Anyone who charges to print our work is called a printer, not a publisher

Drzava · 03-15-2006, 09:57 AM

I think PA falls in a grey area in that it isn't a traditional publisher, but it isn't quite as bad as a vanity press or one that spams emails looking for authors. They make their money off of 1 author selling relatively few copies to family and friends, so I think if one goes with PA they are either admitting defeat, or like a challenge...

robbiejayfan · 03-15-2006, 10:55 AM

PA doesn't charge to have your book published, but they don't do anything to promote it. I believe they are print on demand (could be wrong about that).

I just don't see how they make their money if they don't charge to publish and don't do anything with promotions. Although, I do know they get behind a select few to really promote. I don't know what the criteria is for them to back you up with promotions.

I think PA isn't exactly a bad route to go if you have the time and energy to do your own promoting. But it definitely doesn't live up to traditional publishing houses who put effort into promoting your work.

Drzava · 03-15-2006, 12:20 PM

They make their money by selling slightly overpriced books to the author's family and friends, so it works to their advantage to have many authors selling few copies than few authors selling many copies. They anticipate the author to market it to about 20 or 30 people, not getting it stocked in retail bookstores or anything else, and then they move on to the next author. That makes POD a necessity.

woodcut.evolution · 03-15-2006, 12:25 PM

PA makes money the same way poetry.com makes money. By selling copies to the author and the author's friends and family.

3 things that make a traditional publisher:
1) A traditional publisher will not charge you to print your book (niether does PA).
2) A traditional publisher will promote the book, granted some books get promoted more than others. But a traditional publishers treat each book as a gamble, risking printing and marketing costs in hopes of sales. Thus it is in their best intrest to sell the book. (as a POD PA takes no risk with large print runs and marketing costs, and thusly have no intrest in selling your book to more than a handful of your relatives).
3) A traditional publisher will pay an author an advance on royalties. (PA pays an advace of $1 if I remember correctly, this is a token sum so they can claim to be a traditional publisher).

If it looks like an author mill, walks like an author mill, and quacks like an author mill, it's probably a duck...er..I mean author mill.

mammamaia · 03-15-2006, 05:51 PM

actually, traditional publishers don't always pay an advance... especially not to new, untried writers... or if they're a small indie press that can't justify the risk... but they do pay royalties, will not charge you a single penny to turn your ms into a book, and will market and distribute it to book stores...

basically, any company that doesn't pay for the privilege of publishing your work and doesn't market and distribute the book to brick and mortar bookstores is a vanity publisher, despite what they may like to call themselves...

robbiejayfan · 03-16-2006, 12:24 AM

Thanks for the replies:

I always wondered how PA made money. Now I see the light. I never realized the strategy was to pull in as many authors as possible, knowing they will sell a handful of copies to their friends and familiy. Ah hah! No wonder so many of their books are poorly written and full of editing errors. Thanks for giving me a clear picture of that naughty little company.

411XYZ · 11-29-2007, 11:34 AM

Did you know PA has a forum? I registered but they never sent me an email that would activate my account. If some of us could get on their forum assuming it even exits we could troll the shit out them. If somebody know how to do a Google bomb we could really give them constipation.

There's nothing like a little do it yourself justice.=D>

11-29-2007, 02:16 PM

They tried to hook me in to that. After I asked them about some of the Anti-PA websites I was told that their attorney is still working on getting a court oder to have them removed, a laugh in itself.

Truth-Teller · 11-29-2007, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SC Harrison

I am a PA author who submitted a Mystery/Crime novel manuscript to PA back in the Spring of 2004. While waiting for my book to come out, I spent quite a bit of time on the PublishAmerica message board, associating with others like myself and excitedly preparing for the release of my novel Undeserved Trust.

Upon its release in May 2005, I began to print and distribute bookmarks, I contacted several bookstores to try to set up booksignings, and I vigorously pursued some local newspapers to see if I could get my book reviewed.

To date, I have not been able to convince any book stores to stock my book. I have had several state that they would allow me to place the books on consignment, but that would entail me purchasing the books myself, which I refuse to do.

It took me four months to finally get a newspaper to mention my book. Part of the reason for this was PA's reluctance to even send them a press release, which is something they claim to do for all authors. The book review editor required a notification from the publisher, and this took some six weeks, and a few e-mails from me to PA before he finally got something. I called him once a week to check, and got more and more depressed and angry as the weeks went by with no word from my "publisher".

I have also had friends and family try to order my book from bookstores, only to be told it was "not available". This is also very humiliating, and hard to explain to people. The fact that they have recently reduced the discount they give to bookstores (5% as opposed to their previous 40%), ensures that most bookstores will no longer touch the transaction, or they will lose money every time.

I have come to the conclusion that PA is not interested in pursuing or even facilitating retail sales. Their main objective is to sell books to the authors themselves, which is why they accept virtually any manuscript that comes their way. They even offer a formatting option with no editing whatsoever, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt they are targeting the author instead of the wider reading public.

They are a vanity press, plain and simple, but they claim to be a traditional publisher. They do this because they want their authors to believe their work is at a level that can compete with all other books. I believe they do this so the authors will feel confident enough in their book to spend hundreds (if not thousands) buying books and promoting them. By the time an author realizes they have wasted time and money, two more aspiring authors have taken their place, to begin the cycle over again.

Bwahahhahahah!

That's what you get. Ha!

And any other dolts who think of self-publishing.